SAN FRANCISCO Oct 29 (Reuters) - A high-profile
cybersecurity company that has pledged to respond to hackers
with unusual aggression has hired the former commanding officer
of a top U.S. information-warfare unit to spearhead the most
direct counter-attacks.

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CrowdStrike said the retired Air Force colonel, Mike
Convertino, would coordinate the company's offensive operations
on behalf of corporate clients, aiming in some cases to disrupt
the infrastructure of their attackers.

Convertino commanded the Air Force's 318th Information
Operations Group, which describes itself as the military's
"premier information warfare group." More recently, he worked in
a senior security role at Microsoft Corp.

Founded just a year ago, CrowdStrike has garnered attention
through several early hires as well as its complaints about the
prevailing approaches to cybersecurity. It has more than 60
employees and is based in Irvine, Calif.

The company's founders include prominent veterans of No. 2
security software company McAfee, now part of Intel Corp
, but other executives include former FBI cybercrime chief Shawn
Henry and Steven Chabinsky, an FBI legal specialist who joined
last month as CrowdStrike's top lawyer.

Most recently, Chabinsky has theorized that hacked companies
could have legal protection if they find stolen data on
criminals' computers and then delete or encrypt it.

"If I tackle you on the street, that's assault and battery.
But if a few minutes prior you had taken my wallet, it's
completely legal, I'm defending my property rights," said
CrowdStrike co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Dmitri
Alperovitch.

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Alperovitch and Convertino cautioned that the company is not
currently going that far on behalf of clients.

Instead, they said they could act to disrupt criminal groups
and state-sponsored hackers by misleading them or by publicly
identifying the offending individuals and the companies that
provide them with hosting and other services.

"Government is overwhelmed with the number of attacks from
various nation-states, criminals and others," Convertino said.
"I do believe the legal system needs to allow a greater form of
self-defense."

CrowdStrike already offers assessment and intelligence
services and is close to a test version of a core product,
Alperovitch said.
(Reporting by Joseph Menn)